Buffalo!! =)

So after a 6 hour drive and 3 stops along the way we made it to Buffalo by 8pm last night. It was a very sleepy ride for both of us as the emotional stress of everything is finally catching up with us. But our actual leaving date for denver is fast approaching so the excitement is coming!! When we stopped at Wendy's to get a snack, the woman in front of Joanna said to the cashier, "Can I have an order of the sesame boneless chicken pieces but just a la carte?", the woman behind the counter, seemingly confused replied, "Um...sure. So do you want fries and a drink or anything?" The woman ordering then repeated, "No...a la carte please." Finally, the woman taking the order turns around to look at the menu and says, "alright...what's an OLIVE CART!" Not sure which is funnier...that the woman was saying a la carte at the fast food restaurant, or that the cashier had no clue what a la carte meant. Oh this adventure should be full of fun haha Off to shop and get breakfast with my mommy. It's a gorgeous day for Buffalo... cook out later?? xoxo, Rachel

NECK REMEDY PLEASEEEE

Does anyone know a good pulled-neck remedy??? It's been a month now and I can't stand seeing joey in pain anymore. Nothing seems to work, not even a chiropractor. If you have the magic answer please tell us. =(

our adventure baby

It's a very strange feeling to actually start something that you've been planning for so long. Rach and I made this decision nine months ago while we were laying on the beach talking about how something different needed to start in our lives. Talking about how we felt stuck. Stuck, unsure and feeling that life could be so much bigger than what we were experiencing. So the idea of our big adventure was thus born. We wanted to experience something big with free spirits and open arms. That conversation while tanning in front of the ocean on Coney Island was nine months ago. And time appropriate, our adventure was born today- nine months later. We've planned so hard. Not a day went buy when our plans were not discussed. We never, even for one day, dropped our idea or our passion for wanting to do it. We handed in our keys to our apartment today. The final step of many. When we first moved in we were so positive that we would spend years in the apartment together. We were settling down. Now today, we handed in our keys and got into a car along with everything we own, and we drove out of New York City. It's amazing how things can change. After the sadness of leaving our apartment and amazing landlord rushed through us, we were left singing, smiling and full of the excitement that 9 months earlier we felt our lives were missing. Now we get to spend a few days with my family. In a few days we'll go to Buffalo and spend of few days with Rachel's. And then the Intro, preliminary, base camp or whatever you want to call it section of the adventure is over. I'm extremely grateful that we get to spend some time with our families. Almost all of my anxiety about this adventure is centered around leaving my family. My dad, my mom and James. Having them close is such a constant comfort. Right now I see my separation from them being my biggest obstacle. I guess I should just consider myself lucky to have such an amazing family that gives me separation anxiety. Not everyone is so lucky. I've never planned for anything for nine months before. Two or three months maybe, but never nine. With that much planning its very hard to understand the emotional reaction to when the event actually happens, For a long time, I felt almost nothing, Goodbye job, goodbye friends, goodbye apartment, goodbye New York City. I've lived here since I was 18. I've grown into an adult here and I've learned pretty much everything I need to know about myself for this stage in my life. I want to make myself better. I want to be smarter, funnier, more aware, I want to have more compassion and I want to be able to have more fun. It's one thing for someone to know who they are. It's one thing for someone to know who they'd like to be. It's a totally different thing though when someone knows that who hey are can be so much better, I want this trip to make me better, I want to read more and strengthen my ability to carry on an intellectual conversation. I want to listen more and remember to ask you next time i see you how the interview went. I want to be a person who who's up with cookies after my friend has had a bad day. In conclusion, this is not as simple as an adventure. This is an exploration. I want us to explore our country and I want us to explore each other and our selves. I think I know who I am so no need to soul search. I know who I want to be though. And one major goal for me if to become that person, We started something so big and exciting today and to be completely honest,,,,,, I couldn't possibly be happier about this brown eyed girl sitting on the couch next to me. Without her, I would never have the courage to do something like this. But thanks to her, I get to run around the country looking for life, love, hope, fun, art and without her I don't know if I would even care about anything enough to look for it. Everything I experience is enjoyed 20x more because she is experiencing it with me. Today was the first day where I get to travel the country and experience it for everything it is. I'll get to be an explorer. A hippie. A free bird. A crazy kid. A well traveled individual. But the best, best, most bestest part.... is that I'm doing this ALL. This whole thing. From the moment adventure was conceived on the beach until the day we decide where we're settling down.... We're doing it together. Me and my full time buddy. Honestly....i can't help but feel a little bad for anyone who's not me tonight. lj

Made it to our first stop =)

All the stress, 9 months of planning and craziness is over!!! All that's left is enjoying our adventure. Such a relief. Pulling out of the city brought up a lot of mixed emotions...which I was starting to worry if I would feel anything at all. But overall, it gave us an unbelievable feeling of excitement!! I know for me it's been a while since i've been this excited about anything so it all feels so right. I said to jo in the car... we're closing such a huge chapter. But then we both thought, we're kind of starting a whole new book. Our lives have been pretty amazing thus far, which makes me think that this next book will be even better. When I think back on my life so far I feel so lucky for everything. So... here we go! Day 1...we're up in Monroe, NY until Thursday just relaxing with family. Lets hope this rainy weather doesn't stick around too much longer. And whoever is reading this right now, I hope you have a great week =) xoxo Rach

Joanna makes me laugh EVERY DAY =)

All the stress and sadness aside...we find so much to laugh at every single day. Like Joanna deflating the air mattress hahaha

Cafe Orlin

Well, after having my last brunch ever at Cafe Orlin I felt the need to write a little note just to make sure that all those dang dummys over there know how much I love and will miss them. Last Sunday when you all came to our party I remember looking over and thinking, "i'm leaving my family". And that's what you all are. We laughed, we cried, we made fun of eachother, we talked about eachother, we banged, we partied, we did it all. And I'm going to miss each and every one of you so so much. Good luck with those east villagers, cappucinos, and pota-hota-wata's. LOVE LOVE LOVE TIMES A MILLION. Please keep in touch, Love Rachellaa xoxo

and oh...

p.s. Rach and I would love it if you commented on our posts so that we knew people cared about our blog. thank you. lj

final countdown

So today is Thursday and we're leaving NYC Monday. I have been living with a pretty badly pulled neck for nearly three weeks now and have developed an extremely bad cold. I have yet to experience any actual emotions about leaving in only a few days or quitting the secure job with benefits that I've had for over a year. I wish my body would stop manifesting its feelings in my physical discomfort. Ailments aside, things are going along smoothly. We have made the decision to sell all of our furniture rather than store it since moving our crappy furniture is going to cost more than its worth. I'm very happy with our new decision and the furniture is selling pretty well. Our stoop sale is this Saturday and hopefully we can get rid of most of our stuff there. The goal is more to not have to throw a lot of stuff out rather than trying to make money. But a few extra dollars are always welcome. We went to get our bike racks yesterday in Nyack. We called before hand to make sure they had the one we wanted, they said they did. After taking a detour to Nyack off our usual route from Monroe to Brooklyn, a man with a very roundabout way of speaking told us that our new bike rack would be delivered to their store on Wednesday. Delivered to their store. In other words, they have to order the item we need and they, in fact, do not carry the rack that we asked about only an hour before. Nice. This means that we have to take an extra trip to Monroe on Sunday specifically to drop the bikes off at my house since they need every inch of cargo space our car offers. This also means that on Wednesday, we have to drive back to Nyack and pick up the rack that absolutely better be there. I mean, the intelligent men who, apparently, didn't understand the first question we asked, said it would be there, so what could go wrong? For the rest of today and tomorrow, Rachel and I are living in a sort of 'moving limbo'. We are at the point where we can't so much take further steps until we see how successful our stoop sale will be. The nights that have been previously spent packing and "passionately discussing" which items to bring, sell, or my favorite, throw away, have now been replaced with nights of finding things and corners to clean, scrub and clear. I still attempt to throw everything I see away. As our huge To Do List shrinks, we're getting more and more excited about what all this work and planning has been for. Nine months is a long time to be planning something. Especially the past two months have been much more about the planning and less about the what we're planning for. It's starting to sink in that "it" is finally here. Smiles and laughing are coming more freely and we're really starting to allow the excitement to take over the stress and sadness that comes with leaving home. Only small, final steps have to be done now before we're officially professional adventurers. After working this hard for it, we absolutely can't wait. Three and a half more days. Oh no wait...we have to get the bike rack Wednesday. damnit. ...idiots. So three and a half more days and like...a little bit of Wednesday. -LJ (love joey)

19 days left!!! SO WEIRD!!!

So...we only have 19 days left in NYC. It's starting to really set in. New York has been my second home for almost 7 years!! But everything is really coming together so we're getting very very excited. We only have one room left to paint back to white... of course the biggest... so anyone that wants to help that would great =) We had a nice weekend apart with our families for easter. I'm going to miss everyone so much. But hey, ya gotta grow up sometime right? Going on an adventure is growing up! lol For now... it's off to the park to enjoy the sun w/jo before we work all weekend. Love, Rach

It's the Beginning

So, its the beginning. The preparation has begun for the adventure that we've planning to embark upon for the past 9 months. The plan is to travel. To live, sublet, work and play in different US cities for 2-3 months at time. We want to get to know the country to best decide where we want to settle down and what we want our roles in it to be.

This blog is for our friends and family that we wish we could take along with us on our trip. We plan to leave our Brooklyn apartment on April 25th. We're currently packing, painting and continuing to save as much money as we can while still attempting to keep up our expensive dinner habits. We both work in restaurants and each have about two weeks left of work, which we are more than excited about.

We hope to keep you all updated and interested along our journey :) Stay tuned.